CENTER OF THE STORM: Rodney Pearson, a former highway patrolman, was chosen by the African-American majority City Council as Jasper police chief despite his failure to meet the academic/experience requirements of the job.

The first African-American police chief of Jasper, fired in June by a white-majority City Council after months of racially tinged political turmoil, filed a lawsuit this week against the East Texas town, its white mayor and others.

The civil lawsuit, filed in a Beaumont federal court, seeks damages for mental anguish, alleging that Mayor Mike Lout, Lout's radio station KJAS, station employee Debbie Foster, city personnel director Joe Whitener and "6-12 defendant Does" discriminated against former Chief Rodney Pearson and conspired to deprive him of his civil rights.

"Quite simply," the lawsuit claims, "the idea of a black man with a badge and a gun and the authority of police chief … was too hard to imagine and too much to endure."

Pearson, the East Texas timber town's fire chief, was appointed to head the police department by the community's black-majority City Council in early 2011. Within months, though, opposition to his selection, led by a largely white group, spawned a petition for the recall of three black council members.

Alleges conspiracy

Critics said the officials had selected Pearson over other more qualified candidates, one of whom also was African-American.

The recall succeeded in removing Willie Land, Tommy Adams and Terrya Norsworthy from the council. White candidates filled their positions.

A black-supported effort to recall the mayor, who is white, failed.

Officials at Jasper City Hall declined comment.

Jasper gained international notoriety in June 1998 when three white men abducted and murdered a black man, James Byrd Jr., by dragging him behind a truck. Since then, white and black community leaders say, the town has worked to build racial harmony.

In his lawsuit, Pearson contends that the defendants conspired to keep him from becoming chief, starting with a mayor's alleged pledge to a white officer that he would be chosen to head the force.

'Outrageous behavior'

The lawsuit contends the defendants instituted unprecedented standards for the police chief position and released private information from Pearson's city personnel file.

Foster, the lawsuit says, formed a citizens group that spearheaded efforts to recall black city officials.

Lout's radio station put Pearson's home at risk by announcing every time when the chief and his family left on vacation, the lawsuit argues.

"This outrageous behavior was coordinated to portray the plaintiff as an absentee chief," the suit says, noting that white department heads' vacations were not announced.